Restoring Trust in Schools

By Nora Carr

Public education has a massive public relations problem. Festering for decades, anti-government, anti-public school bile is steamrolling through state legislatures. In this uncivil war, public school teachers nationwide are vilified as overpaid and incompetent.

Even more distressing, North Carolina schoolchildren were mocked by state legislators for grammatical and spelling errors, while a Wisconsin history professor wrote his first blog post and wound up the subject of a partisan investigation.

“After all, if you believe the rhetoric from our politicians, the sole problem in American public education is horrible, inept teachers,” writes Randy Turner, a Missouri teacher and Huffington Post columnist.

From union busting to thinly veiled attempts at privatization, public schools are under attack. Using budget cuts as cover, the dismantling of public education is well under way.

How did an institution that still maintains a 77 percent approval rating from its primary customers, the parents of public school children, get in such a state?